We don't know who this guy is.

He's quite the clown, though.  On Friday morning, while the heavy fog fell and coated everything with a thick glaze of frost, this guy ran in circles around the tops of the apple trees.  His antics tickled my daughter; she described one particular trick where he straddled a branch with this stomach, dangling his forearms down while wiggling his rodent digits and waving his rodent palms.

We've had "pets" before, like this character.  Three to five years ago it was Blackie, so named because his face and stomach were black while sporting an otherwise red-brown coat.  Blackie disappeared about three years ago; we wondered what happened to him.  Did he meet an untimely end at the claws of a cat?  Did he get too slow and not make it past a car?  It bothered us but we tried not to discuss it; better to assume that Nature treated him kindly.

For the last two years we've had not one but two companions; they were virtually identical in appearance, save for one's tail being a bit more thin on hair than the other's.  Itchy and Scratchy, named so for their flea-bitten appearance and chronic scratching at rest.  They were entertaining chaps, chasing each other every day in the early morning, occasionally stopping to rest in the maple tree outside our dining room window, peering back at us as we watched them.

But they're gone now, just as suddenly and inexplicably as Blackie left several years ago.  Is there a squirrel calendar that tells them when to move on?  Why can't we predict when these fur-bearing acrobats will depart and arrive?

No matter; it will have to remain a mystery.  We'll enjoy this latest clown prince while he's with us.  Yesterday he appeared to enjoy the freshening spring breeze from his lofty perch, swaying gently to and fro while casting his tail out to air in the wind.  From time to time he'd nip at something on the branches, then resume his sunning in the breeze.

I wish I knew whether he'll be with us for breakfast in the morning.

4:26:46 PM    comment []